Yo guys, my original HDD is about to run out of space soon and I will need a new one soon. Just curious if we take out old HDD, put in new HDD then maybe a few months later I want to watch old shows again on my old HDD, I can just put it back into my Tivo and everything will be the same and everything right? TV shows would work and I'll be able to watch them again? I read something about them getting deleted if I do something wrong. Also if I want to transfer them to my computer or another HDD, how would I be able to do that?

It would be a bigger hassle to swap out HDDs (damage to drive is more possible, voids warranty) then to copy them over to another Tivo or PC. When it gets full, the Tivo will delete them starting with the oldest show.

To copy them over, you could use Tivo Desktop (not free anymore), or use PyTivo (which also has more features), KMTTG (only downloads, not send back, uses PyTivo for that job.)

It would be a bigger hassle to swap out HDDs (damage to drive is more possible, voids warranty) then to copy them over to another Tivo or PC. When it gets full, the Tivo will delete them starting with the oldest show.

To copy them over, you could use Tivo Desktop (not free anymore), or use PyTivo (which also has more features), KMTTG (only downloads, not send back, uses PyTivo for that job.)

But if I wanted to, I could keep on switching back and forth from my original HDD and future HDDs and nothing will get deleted right? It can still play the shows on my original HDD if I keep on switching back and forth? I won't do that often because all I have is 98% of basketball games on them but maybe one day I might be bored and would like to re watch some games.

What kind of video format are the shows? Would I be able to play the shows on VLC on my computer?

What kind of video format are the shows? Would I be able to play the shows on VLC on my computer?

On the TiVo drive? Nothing that is usable by anything but the TiVo on which they were recorded.

As to whether or not you can switch drives back and forth - I'm not sure anyone knows if it is possible with a Roamio. Unless they are copy protected, transferring to a computer is a much better option.

Just FYI, although I don't recommend any version of TiVo Desktop, the free version is still available.

It's really just the startup power draw... real world power consumption between 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives is no more than a few watts.

With the wall wart that came with my Roamio "a few watts" could be as much as 10% of the things capacity! It's not an insignificant amount. Between the extra heat generated by the 7200 RPM drives (the fan in my Roamio is TINY) and the extra power draw your just asking for problems.

But hey, more power to you. If you blow the wall wart it's easy to fix and if the hard drive fries from heat it's easy enough to drop another one in (you just loose your recordings).

I just don't know why someone would tempt fate, especially when buying a new hard drive.

__________________
Tivo Roamio and Tivo Mini - woot!
Tivo Premiere - probably to be replaced by another Mini
Series 3 - On the way out the door
Tivo HD - On the way out the door

Yo guys, my original HDD is about to run out of space soon and I will need a new one soon. Just curious if we take out old HDD, put in new HDD then maybe a few months later I want to watch old shows again on my old HDD, I can just put it back into my Tivo and everything will be the same and everything right? TV shows would work and I'll be able to watch them again? I read something about them getting deleted if I do something wrong. Also if I want to transfer them to my computer or another HDD, how would I be able to do that?

Pretty much asked and answered in the other thread.....the one you started.

Only my 2¢ worth here... A 3 TB drive, or, for that matter even a 2 TB drive, amounts to putting an awful lot of eggs in one basket. When (not if) that cheap Chinese drive gets tired spinning, or a head crashes as it will some day, you're potentially going to lose a boatload of recordings. If you treasure your recordings (why else have such a huge drive?) I think I'd look at investing in smaller, say 1 TB external storage drives and swap 'em out (and catalog 'em) as they fill up. Those consumer grade 2 and 3TB WD green drives are (just IMO) a ticking bomb for long term storage that's continuously online. At the very least, put a UPS on it (and don't plug anything else into it).

__________________The Pay-TV industry may not hold the patent on alienating subscribers, but COMCAST in particular has succeeded in making an art form of it!

Only my 2¢ worth here... A 3 TB drive, or, for that matter even a 2 TB drive, amounts to putting an awful lot of eggs in one basket. When (not if) that cheap Chinese drive gets tired spinning, or a head crashes as it will some day, you're potentially going to lose a boatload of recordings. If you treasure your recordings (why else have such a huge drive?) I think I'd look at investing in smaller, say 1 TB external storage drives and swap 'em out (and catalog 'em) as they fill up. Those consumer grade 2 and 3TB WD green drives are (just IMO) a ticking bomb for long term storage that's continuously online. At the very least, put a UPS on it (and don't plug anything else into it).

If having a library of programs is important to you, than move the programs off the TiVo to some other external storage that can be backup, today this is not a hard job with the software now available.

Only my 2¢ worth here... A 3 TB drive, or, for that matter even a 2 TB drive, amounts to putting an awful lot of eggs in one basket. When (not if) that cheap Chinese drive gets tired spinning, or a head crashes as it will some day, you're potentially going to lose a boatload of recordings. If you treasure your recordings (why else have such a huge drive?) I think I'd look at investing in smaller, say 1 TB external storage drives and swap 'em out (and catalog 'em) as they fill up. Those consumer grade 2 and 3TB WD green drives are (just IMO) a ticking bomb for long term storage that's continuously online. At the very least, put a UPS on it (and don't plug anything else into it).

I have a 1TB drive in my THD and it is almost full, not with stuff that I wish to keep long term but just things I (or the other person who uses it) haven't gotten around to watching. Yes, it's fairly easy to move it to the computer but transfers are abysmally slow. This is on wired Ethernet.

Anything I want to keep long term, I transfer to computer, edit, trascode to h264 MKV and eventually move to DVD although I am thinking about switching to Blu-ray.

Only my 2¢ worth here... A 3 TB drive, or, for that matter even a 2 TB drive, amounts to putting an awful lot of eggs in one basket. When (not if) that cheap Chinese drive gets tired spinning, or a head crashes as it will some day, you're potentially going to lose a boatload of recordings. If you treasure your recordings (why else have such a huge drive?) I think I'd look at investing in smaller, say 1 TB external storage drives and swap 'em out (and catalog 'em) as they fill up. Those consumer grade 2 and 3TB WD green drives are (just IMO) a ticking bomb for long term storage that's continuously online. At the very least, put a UPS on it (and don't plug anything else into it).

I can see you're unacquainted with Time-Warner's habit of setting the anti-copy bit on every channel they can, and sometimes even the ones that they aren't supposed to.

Hello everyone everyone! I'm getting my Roamio Plus in two days and wanted to ask what the general consensus is here about whether to upgrade now or later when the drive is closer to full?

Thanks

Unless you want to walk through the setup twice I would say take it out of the box DO NOT PLUG IT IN open the case remove the drive install new drive and save yourself the time of doing it later. It really is that simple. plug it in turn it on and ready to go TiVo!!!!!!

Unless you want to walk through the setup twice I would say take it out of the box DO NOT PLUG IT IN open the case remove the drive install new drive and save yourself the time of doing it later. It really is that simple. plug it in turn it on and ready to go TiVo!!!!!!

Unless you want to walk through the setup twice I would say take it out of the box DO NOT PLUG IT IN open the case remove the drive install new drive and save yourself the time of doing it later. It really is that simple. plug it in turn it on and ready to go TiVo!!!!!!

Do this. The fact that it does a full install on a blank drive all on its own is the best new feature they added.

If you need warranty service, pop in the original drive and the warranty is perfectly intact (unless you tell them you did that).

Do this. The fact that it does a full install on a blank drive all on its own is the best new feature they added.

If you need warranty service, pop in the original drive and the warranty is perfectly intact (unless you tell them you did that).

Ignore this guy.

While in the past, TiVo has usually honored the warranty in those circumstances, there is no guaranty that they will continue to do so. The fact that you think that TiVo won't know that you swapped out the drives at some point proves that you are the one who should be ignored.

I'm not saying don't do it, just that the OP should be aware there is at least some risk to doing so.

While in the past, TiVo has usually honored the warranty in those circumstances, there is no guaranty that they will continue to do so. The fact that you think that TiVo won't know that you swapped out the drives at some point proves that you are the one who should be ignored.

I'm not saying don't do it, just that the OP should be aware there is at least some risk to doing so.

I acknowledged that. I said it wasn't enough risk to avoid doing the right thing here.

Where do you get that? Technically, just opening the box voids the warranty.
I think what you meant to say was "TiVo does not aggressively look for upgraded hard drives".

TiVo has denied warranty claims because of upgraded hard drives before. Granted, it was most likely because the user admitted they upgraded the hard drive when they contacted TiVo, but still...

+1

Some people will always persist in making claims they have no way to back up.

I was denied TECHNICAL SUPPORT on more than one occaision, on more than one TiVo, of different models, due to a CSR Rep looking through my logs and noticing the drive had been changed.

It's not a stretch to figure they could also do the same for warranty claims (I've never had to make any directly through TiVo, as I was in the return to retail store window, in all defective TiVo instances).

TiVo has every right to do so. I still do drive upgrades anyway.

TiVo already has all the legalese in-place (has been in-place for years now) in the TOS/User Agreement/Policies, to deny both tech support, and warranty claims, if the device has been tampered with, modified, or serviced by an unauthorized party. All they'd need to do is actually enforce what every one of us agrees to when we activate our TiVos.

For the record, I'm not one of the unnamed (if they exist) people, who always get mentioned as "blabbing/bragging/telling TiVo that I did anything to mine". It seems like somebody just assumed that must have been the case, and it keeps getting added by those who say "Go ahead, upgrade, no worries, just do what you want, nothing bad can come of it if you keep the original drive around", when somebody corrects them.

What's annoying is the same person (and a few other repeat offenders) keeps saying the "no worries" line, despite being corrected by dozens of others, over and over, every chance they get to give dangerous assurances, that they can't back-up will work for everybody, all the time, in all cases/scenarios.

I'm usually the first one stating all this, as my own personal experience, and that YMMV.

People have a right to know all this. IMHO, posts claiming "no worries", without appropriate disclaimers, should be removed by the mods.

The worst of offenders don't even put "YMMV", in their posts. I'd "ignore list" them, if I didn't feel the need to shield newcomers and novices from taking such posts as a green light to void their warranty. Just because somebody gets support now, or got warranty service, yesterday, doesn't mean their warranty wasn't technically and legally void, just that TiVo did not catch it and/or enforce the terms (which TiVo can begin doing any time they want).